Background/Objectives: Inflammatory and hematologic indices derived from routine blood tests have been increasingly investigated as prognostic biomarkers in multiple myeloma (MM). However, their clinical utility remains inconsistent, and data on novel composite indices, such as the mean corpuscular volume-to-lymphocyte ratio (MCVL) and the cumulative inflammatory index (IIC), are lacking in MM. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study including 122 patients with newly diagnosed MM. Hematologic and inflammatory indices were evaluated at baseline and after four cycles of induction therapy. Associations with progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed using Kaplan–Meier analysis, Cox regression models, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: Baseline inflammatory biomarkers, including neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), systemic immune–inflammation index (SII), MCVL, and IIC, were not significantly associated with PFS or OS. ROC analysis demonstrated poor discriminative ability for all evaluated markers at both baseline and post-induction timepoints (AUC values close to or below 0.50). In contrast, post-induction inflammatory indices, particularly PLR, MLR, AISI, and SIRI, were significantly associated with PFS in both univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses. Neither baseline nor post-induction MCVL and IIC showed independent prognostic value. Conclusions: Baseline inflammatory and erythrocyte-derived indices, including the novel composite markers MCVL and IIC, have limited prognostic utility in MM. In contrast, dynamic changes in inflammatory biomarkers during treatment may provide more clinically relevant information regarding disease progression. These findings support integrating longitudinal biomarker assessment into future risk stratification models for MM.
Alexandra-Ștefania Stroe-Ionescu, L. Boldeanu, A. Pǎtraşcu et al.· Biomedicines· 0 citations
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by epidermal barrier dysfunction, immune dysregulation, and marked clinical heterogeneity. Growing evidence implicates the gut microbiome in AD-related pathways through microbial metabolites, intestinal barrier function, and systemic immune signaling. This narrative review synthesizes current evidence on gut microbial alterations in AD, with particular attention to short-chain fatty acids, tryptophan-derived aryl hydrocarbon receptor ligands, intestinal permeability, gut–skin microbiome interactions, and microbiota-targeted interventions. Human studies have reported associations between AD and altered abundance of selected microbial taxa, metabolite profiles, and markers of intestinal barrier dysfunction, whereas animal and in vitro studies provide complementary mechanistic evidence. However, findings remain heterogeneous across age groups, disease phenotypes, geographic populations, analytical platforms, and treatment exposures, and causality is incompletely established. Probiotic and synbiotic interventions have shown strain-specific and context-dependent effects, while postbiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation, washed microbiota transplantation, and metabolite-directed approaches remain investigational. AI-assisted multi-omics methods may improve biological stratification and hypothesis generation, but current applications are limited by small sample sizes, cohort heterogeneity, overfitting, insufficient external validation, and limited clinical implementation. Current evidence therefore supports the gut microbiome as a mechanistically plausible contributor, potential biomarker, and therapeutic target in AD while underscoring the need for longitudinal, phenotype-aware, and externally validated studies before routine clinical translation.
L. Boldeanu, A. Ghenea, Marius-Bogdan Novac et al.· Biomedicines· 0 citations
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